Manage Your Documents

For people who have paper they want to turn into PDF files

With Adobe Scan, you can turn almost anything made out of paper into a PDF. Receipts, notes, pictures, documents, business cards, whiteboards, whatever. You scan your paper-based document, turn on text recognition if you want it, and enjoy a gorgeous PDF that you can touch up, crop, rotate, and adjust color on. The built-in optical character recognition engine lets you reuse scanned content by creating a high-quality PDF you can work with in Adobe Acrobat Reader, and you can save your scans to Adobe Document Cloud for easy sharing. The main drawback is that if you want to make things other than text into PDF files, you have to pay for a PDF Pack subscription.

Why we love it

This app works great for scanning text into a searchable PDF. It allows you to quickly and easily import your paper-based receipts, business cards, and other documents into Adobe Document Cloud. You can take just about any paper document and make it digital. That mountain of receipts can become a digital library in very little time. I just wish Adobe Scan didn't force you to make an in-app purchase to turn more than text into PDF files. Then again, the Adobe Document Cloud integration makes the app quite unique, and works well when you frequently (or not-so-frequently) use other Adobe apps.

For those who want to scan, print, and manage documents with their iOS device.

Using only your iPhone or iPad you can instantly scan and print any written, printed or graphic material, including: contracts for your partners or clients; business cards; receipts to track your expenses; paper notes and mindmaps to save the best ideas for future reference; book pages and articles for further reading and analysis; texts that don't offer a digital copy; or any other multipage document for different purposes.

Capture and Keep Your Notes

For those who need a note app that does it all

The biggest addition in the update involves handwriting. You can now search handwritten notes from the Library and within a specific note.
Any handwritten note can now also be converted into text. Just to note, the first time you launch the app after updating the library will be scanned and indexed for handwriting. If you have a significant amount of handwriting, that process may take a while.
With the Multi-Note feature for iPads, you can work with two different notes side by side. And a new note switcher makes it easy to switch between notes quickly. That feature even supports audio recording and playback.
In the Library, you can view a new recent notes features that shows the 10 most recently opened notes.
An updated Help Center also features articles and tutorials to learn the finer points of the app.
Designed for the iPhone and all iPad models, Notability can be downloaded now on the App Store for $9.99.
Notability's combination of numerous features, an intelligently-designed interface, a fluid, readable handwriting experience, and value is enough to make it unbeatable. The app has a host of great features and they are virtually all implemented in a highly intuitive, user-friendly manner.

Why we love it

Notability has a ton of powerful features and tools to make note-taking a breeze.

Looking for a full-service notes app? Look no further than Evernote.

Evernote is free, universal, and an essential app to share audio recordings. Evernote now includes a 90 minute recording limit. The app even allows you to record audio in the background. Evernote can share that audio to anyone through a simple email. The audio will be instantly accessible to you on any one of your computers or devices with Evernote installed. The app also supports background playback of your audio with controls through the multitasking dock If you opt for an Evernote Premium account, you also get great tools like OCR, more storage space every month, and more. The app is simple and effective and if all you need to do is share audio recordings, then this is the app for that.

Why we love it

For those who want beautiful notes in one place.

Noteshelf has a very smooth, responsive writing engine with little to no lag. More, Noteshelf works so effortlessly that users don't have to exert extra effort or alter their style to create notes that are readable and look like their "normal" handwriting on paper. The interface is cleverly designed and focused on the user's experience; every feature is in the logical position for its use and is implemented in an intelligent fashion (e.g., the palm rest function automatically scrolls down as you write). Noteshelf missed out on top marks by a slim margin, mainly because its handwriting is comparable to Notability, it has fewer features, and it costs more. However, if you need an app with built-in templates for paper types or the ability to use a different template for each page, Noteshelf is the one to get.

Why we love it

Noteshelf is easy to use and provides us with a ton of options for templates. No matter what we need, there will be a template for it.

Get Where You Need to Go

Save yourself the hassle of getting through heavy traffic and then locating a parking spot. With these apps you can check out public transportation or pay someone else do the driving in your college town.

For anyone trying to get a group of people in the same place at the same time.

Getting multiple people to meet in the same place at the same time can be tough. When you have a group of individuals – whether students or coworkers – who all have varying schedules, it can get even harder. Doodle allows you to easily send a poll to anyone asking them to indicate whether they are available or busy for set time slots, and the best part is that an account is not required for filling out polls.
Doodle also offers some advanced features. For starters, you can allow users to select "if need be" times, that way you can make sure everyone is free and that it's convenient for most. Polls can optionally be set as private, so only administrators can view responses, and they can also be used as sign-up systems for events by only allowing users to choose a select amount of options, or to have a maximum number of attendees per time slot.
While Doodle has been known to be web-based, the iOS app in particular allows users to create, modify, and respond to polls on the go. The best part is being able to receive notifications for when participants respond. This makes it a must-have for any Doodle user.

Why we love it

Doodle is the easiest way to find out when everyone's available, and also offers the best iOS solution for this that we've found. Being able to keep up with polls in a desktop web browser, along with in the mobile app with push notifications, makes it easy to use while balancing a busy lifestyle.

For those who want everyone’s schedules on one calendar.

TimeFree allows you to create separate shared calendars for the different roles you have - personal, family, couple, work, even clubs and hobbies. Notifications are delivered automatically to everyone in the group when someone creates or changes an appointment, or sends a message in the app - no need to send direct messages to everyone, or to a group chat only to have people not see it. TimeFree supports import from Google Calendar, so you can use TimeTree immediately. You can also view others’ Google Calendars if you have access. You can use your desktop at work or school and mobile on-the-go.

Why we love it

TimeTree helps you clear up miscommunication and find compromise by sharing information about events with the people in your shared calendar.

For those looking to create interactive real-time calendars.

Allcal lets you create interactive, real-time calendars for your baseball team, nonprofit, book club, and group of friends. You can even share a public calendar of events instantly by creating a public calendar for your business, venue, or school club. Planners can create events of their own with cover photos and real-time updates, or search our public calendars to find fun events to share. The shared calendars make planning easy, keep everybody updated, and even send pop-up notifications of a new event or last-minute change.

Why we love it

It's easy to make plans quickly by searching public calendars for fun events nearby, then adding them directly on your shared calendar.

For procrastinators who like games or the environment.

Procrastination is inevitable. You know you should be focusing on something besides your iOS device, but somehow you end up in the Facebook app yet again. Forest hopes to eliminate that distraction with a timer that can be used in a pomodoro-like way, but with an incentive. As long as the app remains open in the foreground while the timer you set counts down, a virtual tree will grow, and you will be awarded coins. The goal is to grow a tree with each timer you set by not exiting the app and, thus, not getting distracted by your phone. Over time, the virtual trees you grow will make up a virtual forest displayed in the app, and you can compete with friends in doing this as well.
Finally, coins you gather by focusing can eventually be used to plant trees in the real world once you collect enough.

Why we love it

This app allows users to use timer-based techniques to focus, and actually provides a solid incentive for staying off of your iOS device.

For those who strive for optimal performance.

Focus Watch helps you in planning the tasks you need to accomplish, staying focused on them while running the sessions timer and analysing your progress with insightful charts. Focus Watch perfectly works in background mode, so you can start the timer and switch to any other app - you'll be notified with an alarm when the session ends. It also has AppleWatch support!

Why we love it

It's so easy to track your progress with insightful charts, you can see how many sessions you've spent for any separate task in any given day.